Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe was rejected by the Paris Salon when he submitted it in 1863. In fact, so may paintings were rejected that year that the Emperor Napoleon III decided to create the alternative event where these works could be seen and judged by the public at large.  This “Salon of the Refused,” despite including the now historic work of Manet and others, was treated more like a freakshow of aesthetics than a showcase of France’s avant-garde. The public’s mockery of Manet’s paintings was ongoing, as were allusions in his work to the prostitution scene in late…